Though extremism is not on the list, many of the sins in Dante’s categorization are extremes of emotions and actions, though this perhaps does not apply to Fraud and Betrayal. Essentially I agree with Dante on the point that reason is essential to human behaviour, and I would argue that this would prevent extremism in most cases. From my secular perspective, the offence against God in any of these cases is a non-issue, and would not affect my ranking in any way.

I believe Dante’s hell has this format and this sin order because he takes in consideration not only the sin itself but also its repercussions. Moreover, Dante might have created this order to punish people according to his personal dislikes.

As an athiest I have no issue with heresy and I feel that anger is a healthy emotion that should be expressed. Fraud, violence and betrayal are utterly contemporary sins and cross boundaries of belief and non belief. I certainly look at the decending scale from a humanist perspective and were I hazard a reordering I would place averice at the very bottom, the real root to all evil you might say.